Doctor ‘to blame for overdose deaths of hundreds of patients

A RETIRED doctor is expected to be found responsible for the deaths of hundreds of her patients in a damning report. Dr Jane Barton, 69, is accused of prescribing fatal overdoses of opiate painkillers to elderly patients while working at Gosport War Memorial Hospital near Portsmouth in the 1990s.

A £13million investigation is expected to find the “brusque and indifferent” doctor responsible for prescribing a powerful painkiller diamorphine – a form of heroin – and shortening lives including those of patients who could have recovered.

Families hope this week’s report will shine a light on why so many patients died and condemn how authorities behaved.

There have been calls for a criminal prosecution.

Dori Graham, 86, claimed her husband Leonard died after receiving care from Barton and then a fatal injection by a nurse. She said: “Len said he wasn’t in pain but they gave him the injection anyway. Within a few minutes he was dead.”

Len said he wasn’t in pain but they gave him the injection anyway. Within a few minutes he was dead

Dori Graham

Bridget Reeves’s 88-year-old grandmother, Elsie Devine, died at Gosport in 1999. She said: “We would like to see Barton and the other people involved prosecuted.”

However it is understood the inquiry will not refer the case to police or the Crown Prosecution Service when it issues its findings.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is to make a statement on Wednesday. There is no suggestion Barton is guilty of murder.

Last week she insisted she would not comment until after the report.

Dr Jane Barton was working at Gosport War Memorial Hospital in the 1990s (Image: PA)

Gillian Mackenzie, who lost her mother, said she hoped it would lead to those involved in the care of patients facing prosecution, adding: “I would like to see some of the people who were involved behind bars.”

The report is the culmination of a four-year probe headed by former Bishop of Liverpool James Jones, who led the Hillsborough inquiry.

It centres around allegations that patients at the hospital were “almost routinely” given strong painkillers in high doses, which in some cases led to their deaths.

Families believe elderly relatives were given drugs to “keep them quiet” on over-stretched wards. Barton was found guilty of “multiple instances of serious professional misconduct” by the General Medical Council in 2010.

Inquests into 11 deaths in 2009 and 2013 ruled medication prescribed by Dr Barton had contributed to six of them. The Crown Prosecution Service decided in 2006 that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Dr Barton said, after her own GMC hearing, that she did not want patients to be in pain, and always acted in their interests.

“I was faced with an excessive and increasing burden in trying to care for patients at the hospital. I did the best that I could for them in the circumstances.”

But MP Stephen Lloyd said: “What went on was wicked. I’m hoping that after this report Barton is in the cross-hairs along with Hampshire Police, the NHS and the General Medical Services. There has been the most enormous cover-up.”